


The Odd Couple

by curiouswombat



Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Fourth Age, General
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-12
Updated: 2015-04-12
Packaged: 2018-03-22 11:35:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3727318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/curiouswombat/pseuds/curiouswombat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five true drabbles centred on the friendship between Legolas and Gimli.  Written for The Good Earth challenges at Tolkien Weekly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Odd Couple

**Author's Note:**

> Note from the HASA Transition Team: This story was originally archived at [HASA](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Henneth_Ann%C3%BBn_Story_Archive), which closed in February 2015.

**Field Trips**

Each had made a promise, neither would renege, but as Gimli and Legolas travelled together, through both the Glittering Caves and Fangorn Forest, each kept his thoughts to himself.  
  
'Dark. Over powering, such a sense of heaviness pressing down, suffocating; no way to tell East from West or know which way is out…' thought the elf. 'I long for dappled light and woodlands.'  
  
'Dark. Over powering, such a sense of heaviness pressing down, suffocating; no way to tell East from West or know which way is out…' ran Gimli's thoughts. 'Give me cool, veined, rock and an end to woodland.'  
  
........................................

  
  
  
  
**When the wind blows.**  
  
  
They were travelling together to Helm's Deep – he had promised Gimli that he would spend time in the Glittering Caves.  
  
Last time they had crossed this grassland they had hardly paused; had no time to admire the view or hear the birdsong.  
  
But now – now the wind blew across the plain, making the grass move in waves, with a sound like pebbles rolling in the tides' edge. A corncrake cried – mournful as a gull.  
  
Legolas wished for the bustle of the fort, the silence of the caves. If he could not be free of sea-longing here, miles inland, then where?  
  
.......................................................  
  
  
  
**A Question of Definition**  
  
  
If he was going to come here to visit the elf very often, Gimli thought, he would have to find a good source of stone, and build a solid house, as there didn't seem to be any decent rock to carve into and create a proper dwarven dwelling.  
  
Legolas was looking around with pleasure at small green saplings, stretching sunwards between blackened trunks, and pale new leaves unfurling along twisted branches.  
  
"Already," he said, "the trees are responding to elven care – and so recently this was all barren land."  
  
'Hmm,' thought the dwarf, 'for some of us, it still is!'  
  
...............................................................  
  
  
  
**I must go down to the sea again…**  
  
  
'Sometimes', Gimli thought, 'I wonder about some of these Valar – except Lord Aulë, of course.'  
  
'I mean,' he continued to himself, 'Legolas is meant to be a hero – we helped save Middle Earth, they say. Surely this never ending longing is a cruel trick to play on one who did such a service?'  
  
He looked at the tall figure of his friend, hair wind-whipped, boots salt encrusted from standing at the edge of the tide, gazing out to sea.  
  
Gazing East; East from this shore of Tol Eressëa, out over the blue-grey sea, longing, now, for the family left behind.  
  
..................................................................  
  
And finally -  
  
  
  
**...But Not Forgotten.**  
  
While Gimli lived he asked Lord Aulë for a final resting place, "so that the elf may return to the trees".  
  
He lay now, forever honoured, within sight and sound of Aulë's forge.  
  
The elf, indeed, returned to the trees; along with others of his father's people – Tirion held no charms for them.  
  
Now, deep in newly settled woodland, Legolas built a garden. Beneath a rocky outcrop he traced crystal pebble paths around larger, ore-bearing, erratics from far away. Two straight limbed trees, that could well haft an axe, guarded a stone whereon he carved dwarven runes then, under, 'Elvellon'.  
  
  
.....................................................................

Disclaimer: The characters in these stories do not belong to me, but are being used for amusement only, and all rights remain with the estate of JRR Tolkien.


End file.
